Immanuel
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
I hope you have enjoyed our time so far this evening as we have sang a few familiar Christmas Carols. I too hope you are planning on joining us after for some Christmas Cookies and fellowship downstairs.
I do want us though to pause here in our time together to take a few minutes for us to consider the why of Christmas. Particularly how Jesus has come to fulfill God’s promises made throughout the Old Testament.
Promises from God to his people of one who was to come and overturn the history of the world. One who would come and rescue God’s people.
In each of these promises of Old, in it a choice was found. One could believe and trust the promise or one could not believe and fail to trust the promise.
In our time tonight, we want to look at one particular of these promises. A promise given from the prophet Isaiah in the days of King Ahaz. The promise comes in Isaiah 7:14.
14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
But before we can make sense of this promise, we actually need to back up a bit. We need to see what the context of this promise was.
It is a promise of a sign offered to Ahaz initially with the hopes to strengthen him, to help him not tremble in his heart, to not fear.
A fitting sign and aide to King Ahaz, because his heart was overwhelmed with fear. Fear because of two opposing nations joining forces to come against his kingdom, the Kingdom of Judah.
The two nations who had joined forces as seen in Isaiah 7:2 are that of Syria and Ephraim. These two nations had entered league with one another, that is a partnership. And this union caused Ahaz and the people of Judah to shake with fear.
But in the midst of their fear, God comes down to meet Ahaz. And he, through the prophet Isaiah, tells Ahaz to be careful and to quiet his heart and to not fear because of these two nations. For the LORD tells Ahaz that the plans of these two nations will not stand.
What a promise given to Ahaz! That the two nations that caused his heart great fear would not prevail!
And further, God does not just tell Ahaz this, but offers him a sign, any sign.
This brings us back to the verse we are going to focus on this evening, Isaiah 7:14
14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
Now to help us think through this verse and this promise, I’m going to sum it up in what I think is the main idea of Isaiah 7:14, and then we will unfold it briefly.
The main idea of Isaiah 7:14 is this:
God has offered us a sign to show that he dwells with us. To believe this brings comfort, but to disbelieve leads to destruction.
We are going to unfold this in 3 points: (1) a sign offered, (2) a sign rejected, and (3) a sign fulfilled.
Point #1: A Sign Offered
Point #1: A Sign Offered
Because the LORD knew that Ahaz’s heart trembled, he wanted to not only tell him that the plans of this league of opposition would fail, he wanted to show Ahaz that it would most certainly come to pass. And so, here is what is offered to Ahaz:
11 “Ask a sign of the Lord your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.”
Ahaz could ask a sign of any and great length to see that God beyond a shadow of a doubt would fulfill his promise that the plans of this league of enemies would amount to nothing.
Unfortunately, Ahaz refuses. He refuses a sign on the basis of not willing to put the LORD to the test.
And while we know from the Lord Jesus in Matthew 4 with Satan, we should not put the LORD to the test. Friends, it is not a test of the LORD when the LORD invites us to ask of him any sign.
In fact, to refuse such a sign is an act of foolishness which we will turn to momentarily.
But for now, despite King Ahaz’s rejection to ask for a sign, the LORD grants a sign anyways. The sign of our verse tonight.
14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
The sign of Immanuel is given. God is to come and dwell with us, this is what Immanuel means, through a virgin birth.
Friends to state the obvious, this is impossible. It is impossible for a woman to conceive a child without coming together with a man. It is impossible for a virgin to end up pregnant with a child.
That is, it is impossible except when it comes to the LORD Almighty!
This sign was to show that God is moving heaven and earth to accomplish his plans! That nothing, nothing will stop him from accomplishing his plans and his purposes.
Therefore in this given sign, it is to show that God is indeed with his people. For Immanuel means God with us. And in the coming of Immanuel, this will be made plain.
But this is plain even in the day of King Ahaz in his rejection of the sign.
Point #2: A Sign Rejected
Point #2: A Sign Rejected
But again, Ahaz has already rejected this sign. He has refused to ask for a sign. He hid behind religious piety in making his refusal sound religiously worthy, “I shall not put the LORD to the test.”
It matters not the religious and pious language we use, friends, to reject God and his invitation is never good.
For Ahaz, though he rejects the sign offered to him by the LORD, the LORD gives a sign regardless.
But now in his rejection, this sign is no longer meant to bring hope and promise for Ahaz and the majority of Judah.
The sign here offered regarding a virgin conception and one called Immanuel now becomes a sign of judgment for Ahaz.
For instead of God showing Ahaz that he is with him to deliver him. God will now show Ahaz and those with him that God is indeed with him, but that because of their lack of faith, because of their disbelief, because they prefer to trust in other nations instead of the Almighty, God is with them as a consuming fire. He is with them not as deliverer, but judge.
For in this sign, the LORD promises that the very refuge Ahaz seeks to trust in, the king of Assyria, this king will turn on Judah and consume Judah up to its neck. The sign of Immanuel for Ahaz and Judah rings as judgment for those who do not have faith.
Friends, wherever you are in your faith journey this evening, a sign has been offered to help our faint hearts, our unfirm faith. The sign of Immanuel.
And to add to it, the rejection of this sign by Ahaz offers a warning. A warning that whether we want to acknowledge or not, God is with us. And he is either going to be with us as deliverer or with us as judge if we refuse him.
Friends, you who have continually rejected God and the sign of Immanuel, know that if you continue to not believe, if you continue to reject this sign like Ahaz, the same fate awaits you. Immanuel will reveal himself as one with you, but as judge. A righteous judge who will condemn you for all the ways you have rebelled against your maker, your creator. Holding you accountable for every sin, both big and small. This is your fate if you continue to reject the sign.
But friend, it does not have to remain this way! Once more see the grace of God! For not only has God promised a child conceived of a virgin who will be called Immanuel, he has fulfilled this promise at Christmas!
Point #3: A Sign Fulfilled
Point #3: A Sign Fulfilled
The book of Isaiah covers a time period from around 740 B.C. until 681 B.C. with Matthew’s gospel account being estimated to have been written around the late 50’s or early 60’s. Church, you know what I’m probably going to say here, but for our guests I want to make it abundantly plain, that is the year 0050 or 0060. Nearly 700 years after Isaiah’s prophecy.
And yet, 700 years later, we see Matthew declare to us that the promise made in Isaiah 7:14 has been fulfilled.
Hear what Matthew writes in Matthew 1:22-23
22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:
23 “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).
In the coming of Jesus at Christmas, the prophecy long foretold has now been fulfilled. Jesus, born of woman, conceived by the Holy Spirit is the one who has come to fulfill the promise made that a virgin shall give birth to a son. And this Jesus is then both fully man and fully God. He is our Emmanuel, God with us.
Jesus has not just come to fulfill promise, but to deliver us, to deliver us not from mortal enemies, no. Jesus has come to deliver us from the curse of sin and death.
He has come to save us by living and dying and then rising again. Jesus who is eternally God came to be born in our likeness as man in order to be with us and deliver us.
You who have yet to believe, will you not believe this Christmas? Will you not come to believe that the Christmas Story is all about the coming of our Emmanuel?
And dearly beloved, you who have placed your faith and believed that Jesus is our Emmanuel, continue to marvel at the awe of what love has come at Christmas.
Look at how God the Son Incarnate came to dwell with us not as judge as we rightly deserve, but as our deliverer. That our Emmanuel has come to fight for and has already won our salvation for us, and the final battle already belongs to him! We can rest in this hope, because our Emmanuel, God with us, has come in Jesus.
Let us then rejoice and be glad as we contemplate that God has come to dwell with us in Jesus in order to deliver us!
Let’s pray….…
